What It's Like Working With Concrete Marketing Crew

Audio Transcript

Hey there. Welcome to another episode of Your Concrete Success Podcast. This is your host Danny Barrera, founder of concrete marketing crew. And in today's episode, just get ready. I have a very, very, very special guest who I love very dearly, who's been right at my side since founding Concrete marketing crew. And you're gonna get to hear from her a lot more. Her name, Maddie Barrera. Welcome aboard Maddie. How's it going? It's going great. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm really excited. It's been a long time coming.

I mean, we've had these conversations and, uh, finally you pulled the trigger, you said yes, I finally pulled the trigger and I said yes. And here we are beautiful. What are we talking about today? All right. Today's topic of conversation is what it's like working with concrete marketing crew. Ok. So, you know, I speak to a lot of, of our concrete contractors as I'm doing the intake and the on boarding and sometimes they have these questions for me. So I figured it'd be really nice to be able to talk about them on the podcast.

Are you ready? Always ready? I'm ready. All right. So I'm gonna ask you a couple questions and then we're gonna talk about them. All right. Awesome. All right. So the very first question is we get asked all the time. How did we get here? So, how do we get here? How do we start this company? How do we start marketing? Beautiful. How, how do we start marketing? I mean, it's been a long journey. Um, I used to work at Fox News Channel as an IT analyst and uh I was there for about 248 to 210 years, but during that time is the time that I got into digital marketing going into e-commerce.

Um nothing related to the concrete industry. Um However, my, my father was a construction contractor later on, got into flooring. Um and uh we're from El Salvador. So uh being one of the only concrete polishers in the industry, I'll tell you, uh you know, looking at the guys coming over and, and the pickup trucks and back in the day, late nineties, uh the polishing machines are not what they were today, what they are today. Uh So I, I have those fond memories of um the only few memories I have with my father uh in construction sites, bringing food to the crew and these were commercial projects, think of the airport of El Salvador, um shopping centers, et cetera.

So coming with that background, uh there was a point in time in, in my personal life that I went through a reinvention process. I went through divorce, um, about eight years ago and, uh, I'll tell you I was running a marketing agency at the time, uh, which was, uh, contractor Seo agency and it just didn't pan out the way I thought it would. Uh, and I had a few clients. I would get a couple of painters, roofing clients, uh, remodeling contractors. And I would just be in this up and downs up, uh Pecan valleys, pecan valleys.

And I got myself into this, uh group called the Seven Figure Agency led by Josh Nelson. Uh, him and Jeff Fisher, some of my, uh best mentors up to date here for the agency space. And they asked me a question. So what's gonna be your focus? Like, what do you want, who do you want to serve? Um, and I've, uh, served, um, divorce attorneys, you know, dentists, um, remodeler, construction companies, etcetera. And I said, well, you know, II, I, with all the respect, I just don't like working with attorneys.

Um, just not my, my vibe. I don't do too well with them. You know, it's just not II I don't wanna dress up. Uh, but, you know, they started asking me a couple of questions and I said, well, you know, I, I feel very comfortable in, in concrete and construction. Um, just never thought about pursuing it as in the, uh, so this was about 27, this is happening. And at that point in time, we were already in a relationship. I was dating you and um, I don't know if you remember like, right, I used to have all the, all of these other clients that I, I told you, hey, look, I, I, I'm going after concrete contractors now.

Uh, and that was the start before concrete marketing crew. It was contract to co agency. My background was heavy in, in, in it digital. But I had a, a very, very big background in Seo lead generation with Google Search and I just leverage that and double down on that. And uh up to this date, it's something I take pride on. Uh very much so that's how we got here. Um You know, uh a lot of things have happened since then and that has uh enable us to create an incredible impact in the industry.

Um We have a mission to impact profitably enhance the lives of 230 concrete coating and decorative concrete contractors by helping them get more leads, book more estimates and sell more floors so that they can live the life of their dreams, the lives that they desire and that's where we're at. That's the journey. That's how we got here. Yeah, I remember that. I remember you um sitting in my living room and you were actually we started in a little corner desk at the edge of my living room. And one day I remember being um like teaching, I've been teaching for 2100 years and one day you told me, hey, man, do you want to join concrete marketing crew with me?

And for me, it was very interesting because I didn't have that, that kind of background. But living with you, you live breathe what you do, you're very passionate about everything that you do. So it kind of stuck and before you know it uh I'm having a more active role in the company and it was something that was very um it's very exciting for me. So now here I am like stepping into the role and it's very exciting to be able to serve concrete contractors too because my father also has a construction background.

So I saw the struggle of the entrepreneur, construction person like service man, like going out there and trying to get jobs. So there's nothing that's more exciting for me than to see our coding guys get all the jobs that they do. So that was kind of cool. Yeah, we, we just, I, I personally do respect and uh for, for me the way I, I tell our, our team, this is a responsibility that we have to serve um our clients at the highest possible levels because they're out there, they're busting their assets.

I mean, some of these guys are pushing £13 grinders all day and you know, they're building their second crew, they're going to the third and they're going through a lot of chaos, a lot of movement, a lot of moving pieces. And what I, what I our heart and our desire is to build so much certainty in their marketing, in their, in their lead generation and the sales effort that they don't have to worry about that, that they look, they can look at us and say, hey, look, they got that handled and we had a call with one of our partners yesterday and that's exactly what they said and, and that's, that's really where we're at.

Um So that's, that's really how, how we got here. Um And it's been a lot of pick and valleys. It hasn't been a smooth ride uh in a lot of pivots in, in between, but I'm excited where, where we're headed for. Sure. That's right. So, talking about peaks and valleys, let's get into a juicy question. All right, I'm gonna put you on the spot. So what would you say has been the biggest change, the biggest learning curve. What have we learned and changed over the years that we've been running this company?

How, I mean, there's, there's been a lot of changes, digital marketing, everything changes. It seems like every month there's a new curve. Uh Facebook advertising, every week there's something new happening. Uh So from that front, it, it really does keep our team, our team has evolved tremendously. Uh There was a point in time where I was relying on heavily overseas Filipinos uh to do fulfillment for our clients. And I can tell you I have so much love and appreciation for, for them, but we've learned along the way that uh to give our clients the best results.

You see, I always had this intention of like, hey, I want, I want to serve our clients in the best way possible. Give them a great service for a great price. But a lot of times when you rely on in the vigils that there is just no culture fit. And there, you know, you're, you're putting so much effort towards building site architecture, keyword, research, content strategies all the way down to the graphics. Yes, you can get, you can pay for a lot less. But the time that you end up fixing uh work, um it's, it's just as much.

So there's been that big difference, big shift in our company entirely. We're entirely different from where we were three years ago. Uh We've had an entire atmosphere and in our value system, our core values has evolved from that. So there's that piece, the digital marketing piece, a lot of things have matured. We understand our clients self cycle a lot better. We've developed uh automation in ways that we didn't even think we're, you know, up to what they are today. And now we're playing with A I. So now we're looking at integrating A I to our clients sales cycle, very powerful for lead conversions um we have an amazing team that does creative work on the video side and the graphic um side, you know, and, and we take pride on that.

So everything has gotten better. There was a point in time where we're just doing the same thing, right? When trying to improve on, on this little pocket here. So I think what's evolved from the company's standpoint is the people. We have a lot better people. And again, any anyone, anyone who's been part of this journey, we appreciate you guys, like you played a big, big uh uh place otherwise we wouldn't be here. However, there's been some challenges that have come along the way and we realize, hey, look is better if we just align ourselves with better people. Right. Right.

People, right. Seats. So people have been a big piece of that. Um The culture has been a a another one and from the marketing strategy perspective, it always keeps changing. However, with seo, for example, we've always had the best road map in the industry hands down. Uh There is no way like, and there's been probably one or two clients that just wasn't a good fit. We had one like at day 21, they were like, hey, what's going on and like, hey, you guys aren't doing anything. It's like we're at day 2100 right now, like we're just getting on your website.

Uh But aside from that, we've learned how to align ourselves with better clients because we used to take just everyone under the sun that wanted more leads. Now we partner up with, with companies that have a great culture that care about their employees and that really do care about their installation. There's been quite a few clients that we've created more problems for them by the mere fact that they're so booked out installing and then their installs are failing and they're having to change their names. So we've had that conversation too.

So how have, how has the whole thing evolved? Everything has changed. Um We're in 2100 we're in the best place that we've been and I thank God for, for everything that's happened. And uh big parties, you coming into the picture and helping, you know, it's been a big evolution too, like you said, in terms of, of the people that we've, we've employed like we have, you know, uh like you said, I have much love and appreciation for all our employees that worked, have worked with us overseas and whatnot.

But, you know, you do skimp on quality a little bit when you have, you know, an American based company being represented by a person from a different country because how do you market something that you don't know. You know. So we have found, I think that has been one of our biggest shifts and best things that have happened in our agency that we have, you know, solely us based account managers. And I also remember when we used to remember when we used to work with templates and stuff and like one template for one graphic, for one person and then the other person would see the graphic and they realize the same graphic, like, you know, that that's not quality.

We, we've really evolved in the sense of excellence when it comes to the, the product that we've delivered to our clients. Absolutely. So I have now that you said that about right people in the right seats, I want to talk a little bit about right clients. What, what, what kind of clients, what are the right clients that are gonna get the right results with us because not everybody will. I get it. And I, I talked to our sales team and marketing team about this and I, I believe there's gotta be alignment, alignment is, is what matters in business is what builds fluidity is what makes things go faster smoother.

Um And there was a point in time where we were so concerned about the MRR and how much are we growing month after month? How many more clients are we getting? It just created more chaos internally. So there's gotta be alignment in the fact that they understand our crew values, crew values, commitment, responsibility, excellence, and world class. So if we get a client that we go back and start doing Google searches and we see like their home advisor has like 21 star reviews or 21 yelp reviews. And we're having that conversation in the beginning, you know, we don't take those clients, we can't afford to take those clients.

They're more of a liability for us. Uh, and it doesn't work, the marketing can't fix that. So, you know, our crew values must align with them. The other thing that I'm seeing is our clients are family people. Like you could probably speak more on that because you, you know, and you're in communication and you're, you're seeing what's coming in with our clients, would you, I mean, you know, if you're, if, if we have, we get these clients who are looking for like a boys club to like hang out and like what's cool like and the cool cars and all that.

We're not about that. You know, we're a family owned business. You know, we have this one particular client whose dream was to bring his family on board to work with them, his father, his sister, his brother, and that's the type of client that really works well for us because we're a family owned business. We're not a boys club. We're not looking for the cool this like, you know, hey, I went traveling here and I have this thing and that thing, we're more about having the family unit and having like the provider of the household, whether it's, you know, I love our clients who work with their wives, like their wives are behind the scenes like calling people and like, you know, sending invoices because it's very aligned to who we are, right?

Yeah. And the next piece is the uh the sales process that they have in place and their understanding of the the importance of marketing as an investment, the clients that are thriving and crushing it. They're numbers driven. A lot of people say data driven is different than numbers uh data. We could talk about data being the analytics and what's happened already now. Numbers driven. It's hey, how much are we investing? What's the real cost per here? Are we actually having traction that is moving, moving us forward?

Is this dragging us? What time of the year is it like? What are the patterns that we're seeing year over year? What are our conversions from lead into Book Testament? What are our conversions from book testate to to so jobs? What are our conversions on the follow up pipeline in the three month process? So the companies and the business owners that get into and stepping into that role, I'll tell you like we just crush it right out of the gates and then there's the next segment of those that are growing and becoming the into stepping into those shoes.

And we have a great programming process and we're constantly evolving what the support looks like for them. Uh So I'm excited for that, but there's the alignment of, are they open to understand that this is as a business and you're not just installing floors. Like there's a big difference between an installer and a business owner and those that are looking to build a business and not be in the weeds as an installer. And they brag about how they've been in business for 25 years before there was even, you know, in, in, in every garage floor out there.

Like those that brag about how many years they've been in business, they can show you how successful they've been in business. They have the installer mindset, the, the companies and the business owners that understand that they have to treat this like a business. I can tell you it's a lot of hard work in the beginning. But over time, over six months to 12 months, those are the ones that go from like doing 12 floors to doing 304 1003 100 installs a year. Oh, yeah, for sure. We just had a call with one of our clients this week who started off with us.

I think maybe it was like in February and young guy, you know, was starting off by himself and he took this, he trusted us. That's one of the things that he says the most about us, which is the thing that makes me the happiest. I trust you guys. He trusted us. He listened to our advice, he took it, he ran with it and this was in February that he signed on with us and we're in August and he's now looking to grow with us in our next next tier up because he has multiple crews and he has, you know, his, his business comes from, he was saying like 75% of his business was coming from, from the ads and stuff.

So that's a big deal and all because he listened to us and he trusted us and he took our this not just as an installer, but he took his, his, his business as a business, a business, anything from the press, the branding, how he presents himself, how he's putting himself out there, leveraging tools like FLO, which were partners with Flo. Um And, and the company, I mean, the CRM that we provide utilizing uh all of those tools. And I think another thing that really, I'd like to mention here is being 100% up front and there's no masks here.

I mean, you're a woman, you know, you're mature, you have kids. We run a business that in itself is stressful enough to go and be as people and be as the marketplace and lie to them and steal and cheat like that doesn't fly here and there, there's gotta be that cultural alignment, not just internally but with our clients that if we sense any, any sense of BS, like we just cut relationships and a lot of times our clients don't like that, like they literally don't like that when we tell them, hey, look, there's just no alignment here because we feel like there's no sincerity or transparency going back and forth.

There's no accountability. I think that to wrap this point up, that's, that's a big one for us when it comes to our client successes and client alignment. All right. So I have one more question. Um Sometimes we get clients that or a lot of times we have clients are like, what's your guarantee? Like? You know how there's like other agencies that guarantee like whatever or whatever a month, I wanna know what our guarantee is. Your marketing campaign is gonna perform positive performance guarantee. I've thought this to hundreds of agencies positive performance guarantee.

If you can't guarantee that your marketing campaign is gonna perform. How does that relate to seo if you're looking at an SEO campaign in a three month period? How, how has the domain authority grown in the domain rankings? The visibility, the amount of phone calls coming in from the Google business listing? Is it going up? Is it flat? Is it the same? Right? Like there's that positive um positive performance guarantee when it comes to lead generation Facebook as uh I mean, within 24 48 hours you're up and running like there's that guarantee, uh Google ads that takes a little bit longer, probably seven days to 10 days to get the, the the results.

But that's it. And then what we tell our clients is, hey, if we can't perform, we fire ourselves. And there's been clients that I tell you that it, there's been a misfit and a misalignment out of the gates and we've refunded them entirely, like out of the gates. We don't, we don't even, we don't want their money. We don't need their money. We appreciate for giving us a shot. But that's, it's good business. Yeah, I like to, I don't promise a number. But one of the things that I do love to do in our, on boarding calls is I like to know a KP. I, what's your KP?

I? Right. And, and my goal is to meet that KP. I, and if I can't meet that KP I, with, with the budget that you have in hand, I'm going to present to you a very clear, I'm going to show you the data. I'm going to show you the facts. And if you want to meet me that KP, I, based on my recommendations we can meet there, but I work towards your KP. I, I'm not going to promise you a certain number of leads because you know what I can get you whatever many number of crappy leads that you want.

Like, I want to get you qualified good leads that meet your KP. I, and I tell them, and it's very true. If I don't meet your KPI, I cannot meet your KPI, I will fire myself. Absolutely. Yeah. And there is that sense of setting realistic expectations when they tell you, hey, I wanna get $7 leads. That's just not happening. Can we get them? We've gotten them all the time. But is it sustainable? Can you build a business on that and make it? No, no, it's, it doesn't happen.

But I'll tell you with um like lead generation through Facebook ads, uh tiktok, advertising, et cetera, that kind of social media. There's constant change in evolution in creatives because the impressions are burning the creative so quick that there is. How big is the budget, what's the territory? How many competitors do you have? And then the other piece is, does the client provide you with the footage, the pictures, the videos that you need to make their campaign uh crush it. So there's that set expectation where there is that relationship of OK, you're not gonna over promise, but you under promise and over deliver.

And the other thing is when they come from another agency, like there's a lot of well known agencies out there in the space, many of them, which I know the individuals that run the agencies that have started the business, great intentions behind uh giving clients results. But clients come to us and they say, hey, I've been stuck at this level for this long. And then you look at the account and you're like, well, it doesn't look that it was much like it was just the same image rotated like every other week.

And that's why you're paying over 30% for, for a lead that when they come to us we cut the, the cost per lead generated their sales improve. And the same budget that they were giving someone else now produces more revenue for them. Absolutely. Right. So that's the KP I piece that you're talking about. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. That, I mean, you know, it, it's like with everything in marketing ebbs and flows, but it's 100% taking that, that, that KP I and meeting it. That's, that's for me the most important part of, of, of giving my clients results.

That's how we quantify the results in our business. You know, we, we, we try to meet you where you want to be at. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful. What are the questions you got for me? I don't have any other questions for you. Yeah. So let's see. What was the title of the podcast? The title of the podcast is, what is it like? Working with concrete marketing crew? Right. You answer that question and then I'll answer and we'll wrap it up. I think working with concrete marketing crew when you work with us, you're really, we're a team, we're a team, an extended part of your, a company.

We're not just um a company that is going to run ads for you. We're literally a part of your team. You know, we have had clients who we've told, hey, don't put it all in Facebook and Google, try marketing materials too. And you know, we, we, we cover the whole marketing gamut. There's not one piece that we don't cover digital marketing, correct? So, so we, I think that, that that would be what it's like working with us. You're going to be speaking to um a person that, that you can feel comfortable with someone that you can trust, uh someone that you can access pretty much all the time.

Danny, like we're, we're pretty available all the time, you know, from Monday through Friday. Working hours, obviously, like, you know, it's 10 o'clock at night. I don't think that you're gonna be, you know, walking, be sleeping, but you're gonna have the opportunity to speak to a real person all the time. Uh You're gonna get results, period, you're gonna get results, period. So I think that's what's working with us. That's what it's like. Yeah. Um And what it's like working with us, this is a partnership. It's a relationship.

Um Look, I run a business with my partner, my literal partner, my wife and our relationship in itself. We have times where there are problems and if we don't focus in coming together and solving those problems, you see that harms the relationship builds a gap, builds distance. So the way I look at our clients is the same thing is we have a relationship, a commitment, an obligation from us as a vendor as a partner, as a provider to ensure that we're doing the best that we can to help them out.

And there's times where we drop the ball, we own up 1 million% right away. Actually, we own up before the client even notices. Hey, Mr client, like this is what's going on. That's part of the culture and that's what the relationship that we've established. So what's it like working with us? We're 100% with you. We're not gonna give you the smoking mirrors. Why? Because the team, I've tried that earlier on in concrete marketing crew. That was the, that was where I was going, you know, all flashy trying to prove to people and this and that trying to hype up.

We've sold, we've helped our clients sell over $100 million in sold projects. Yet you come across our marketing is very subtle. I don't need to brag about it. Why? Because number one, that's our client's money. Those are our clients results. They deserve all the praise and the results not us. We're not here trying to flash ourselves into the world. We don't need to do that. We're past that level. So this is kind of the, the relationship we're establishing. We're growing, we're getting better and in a relationship, both partners makes each other better.

And what matters is that we're both growing equally. Uh So we're here to serve the industry. It is an honor to serve every one of our clients and we have one goal is to help you reach your goals and that's it. So that being said any last words, um I don't know, I really liked doing this podcast with you. So, um I guess if you guys have any questions you want to answer when you want us to answer next time, you can message them to us, email them to us.

Tune in to your concrete success podcast on Spotify, Amazon Google, wherever it is. And if you're listening to this, do us a solid. If you like this, I mean, it would mean the world if you leave us a five star review. Why? Because it's gonna help other people hear about what is it that we're here to do, which is elevate the industry. And if you're watching this on youtube, thank you for watching. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. You hit that like button, you hit that share button, give us some love and uh wishing you all the best.

I'll see you on the next one.